Chapter 47
Riri's hand moved before conscious thought finished processing.
Shadow-step. Not toward the extraction portal. Toward Samael.
The cathedral blurred. Distance collapsed. She materialized directly behind the Void Cardinal, Desert Viper's Fang already in motion, blade angled for the gap between vertebrae where shadow met corrupted flesh.
The strike connected.
Metal scraped against something harder than bone. The Void Cardinal didn't flinch. Didn't react. Its burning gaze stayed fixed on Samael, skeletal grip still crushing his throat.
Samael's HP: 27.
Riri's mind moved faster than panic. The Void Cardinal was Level 38. Her attack had done nothing. Physical damage was useless against something this far above her level.
But she didn't need to kill it. She needed to break its grip.
"Kirin, lightning strike, center mass! Vermillion, drain everything you can! Loki, impact charge! Vesper, blind it!"
Four companions moved as one coordinated unit.
Kirin's lightning struck from above, electricity arcing across the Void Cardinal's robed form. The creature's head turned slightly, acknowledging the attack but showing no pain.
Vermillion's six butterflies descended, wrapping around the Void Cardinal's extended arm, red drain effects pulsing. The creature's HP bar appeared.
[HP: 150,000/150,000]
The drain barely registered. Fifty HP per second against one hundred fifty thousand. Negligible.
But Vermillion wasn't trying to kill it. Just distract it.
Loki hit the Void Cardinal's legs with full momentum, five hundred pounds of shadow-wolf impact. The creature shifted backward six inches. Not much. But enough to loosen its grip fractionally.
Samael's HP: 17.
Vesper materialized directly in front of the Void Cardinal's burning eyes, darkness expanding to block its vision.
The Void Cardinal's free hand rose. Dark energy gathered in its skeletal palm.
Riri saw the attack forming. AoE. Existence Drain but expanded to hit everything within ten meters. It would kill her, kill all four companions, and finish Samael simultaneously.
One second until discharge.
She'd already used shadow-step. Cooldown: eight seconds remaining. No escape ability available. HP at 892. The incoming attack would deal thousands.
Through the Bond, she felt Samael's consciousness flickering. His terror had evolved past fear for himself into something worse. He was watching her die trying to save him. Watching her ignore his orders, his desperate plea for her to extract.
I'm sorry, she thought through the Bond. I can't leave you.
The Void Cardinal's palm pulsed with gathered energy. Half a second.
System #2's interface exploded across her vision, honey-gold particles practically screaming.
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[BONDED SYSTEMS DETECTED IN CRITICAL DANGER]
[INITIATING SYNERGY UNLOCK]
[ANALYZING COMPATIBILITY...]
[MATCH FOUND]
[NEW ABILITY AVAILABLE - BOND RESURRECTION]
[Cost: 50% of Partner's Maximum HP]
[Effect: If Bonded Partner reaches 0 HP, automatically resurrect with 50% health]
[Cooldown: 24 hours]
[One-time use remaining: 1/1]
[WARNING: This ability will trigger automatically if Samael Santoro dies]
[WARNING: You will lose half your maximum HP permanently for 24 hours]
[Accept ability unlock? Y/N]
The choice appeared and Riri's mind processed it in the fraction of a second before the Void Cardinal's attack discharged.
Bond Resurrection. Emergency safety net. If Samael died, he'd come back. But she'd lose half her HP pool. And it was one-time use.
If they both died after the resurrection triggered, that was it. Permadeath. No second chances.
"YES!" Riri shouted.
[BOND RESURRECTION - UNLOCKED]
[Passive ability active]
[Standing by for emergency trigger]
The Void Cardinal's Existence Drain detonated.
Dark energy exploded outward in a ten-meter sphere. Riri felt it hit her before pain registered. Not physical damage. Something worse. The attack bypassed armor, HP, Constitution. It targeted existence itself.
[HP: 892 → 0]
[CRITICAL]
[Riri Lee - TERMINATED]
But in the same instant, through the Bond, Samael's HP dropped past the threshold.
[HP: 17 → 0]
[CRITICAL]
[Samael Santoro - TERMINATED]
[BOND RESURRECTION - TRIGGERED]
[Samael Santoro - RESURRECTED]
[HP: 0 → 1,523 (50% of maximum)]
Light erupted from Samael's chest. Not gold like extraction portals. Rose-gold. The color of the Bond itself.
The Void Cardinal's grip broke as Samael's body surged with resurrection energy. He dropped to the cathedral floor, landing on his feet despite having been dead two seconds ago. Blood still poured from his mouth but his eyes were clear, focused, alive.
His gaze found Riri's body on the ground five meters away. She'd been thrown back by the Existence Drain's force, crumpled against marble, completely still.
HP: 0.
Dead.
"No." Samael's voice was raw. "NO!"
Through the Bond, Riri felt his grief hit like physical impact. Felt him reaching for her across their connection, trying to find her consciousness, finding nothing.
The Void Cardinal turned toward Samael, skeletal hand rising for another Existence Drain. The Archbishop floated closer, preparing his own attack to coordinate.
Samael didn't look at either of them. His attention stayed locked on Riri's body.
Kinetic energy gathered around him. Not controlled. Wild. The air itself screamed as pressure built past any threshold he'd ever reached before. The cathedral floor cracked beneath his feet. Pillars groaned.
[Samael Santoro - Entering Berserk State]
[All limiters removed]
[Combat Power: 26,856 → 47,392]
[Warning: HP drain accelerated]
[Warning: Stat damage accumulating]
The Void Cardinal's Existence Drain discharged directly at Samael.
He didn't dodge. Didn't try to defend.
The kinetic compression he'd been building released.
Not at the Void Cardinal. At the cathedral itself.
The entire structure imploded inward. Vaulted ceiling collapsed. Pillars shattered. Stained glass windows exploded into fragments. Everything within thirty meters of Samael compressed to the size of a basketball, then detonated outward in a shockwave of stone and dark energy.
The Void Cardinal took the full impact.
[VOID CARDINAL - HP: 150,000 → 94,230]
Fifty-five thousand damage in a single attack. The creature staggered backward, its skeletal form showing cracks where compression had fractured bone.
But it wasn't dead. And Samael's HP was draining.
[HP: 1,523 → 1,247]
The Berserk state was consuming him. Two hundred seventy-six HP lost in three seconds. He had maybe twenty seconds before it killed him.
He didn't care.
Another compression gathered. Larger than the first. The remaining cathedral structure groaned as gravitational force pulled everything inward. The corrupted altar shattered. The floor buckled. Even the Void Cardinal and Archbishop were dragged toward the epicenter.
Samael stood in the center of it all, eyes dark and empty, focused entirely on destroying everything that had killed Riri.
The second compression released.
The cathedral ceased to exist as a structure. Everything became debris, then fragments, then dust. The explosion carved a crater thirty meters deep. The corruption that had permeated the air burned away in the kinetic force.
[CORRUPTED ARCHBISHOP MORVAIN - ELIMINATED]
[VOID CARDINAL - HP: 94,230 → 23,847]
The Void Cardinal survived. Barely. Its skeletal form was half-destroyed, one arm completely gone, burning eyes dimmed to embers.
But it was still functional. Still a threat.
Samael's HP: 743.
He had maybe ten seconds left before the Berserk state killed him.
The Void Cardinal raised its remaining hand, gathering what energy it had left for a final Existence Drain.
Then it stopped.
Froze completely.
Red butterflies had wrapped around its entire body. Not six. Dozens. Vermillion had multiplied during the chaos, every fragment of the shattered cathedral giving it material to generate more forms.
The Void Cardinal's HP began dropping. Slowly at first, then faster as more butterflies attached.
[HP: 23,847 → 23,234 → 22,156 → 20,478...]
But it wasn't enough. The drain was accelerating but the Void Cardinal would break free before it reached zero. And when it did, Samael would be too weak to fight.
Through the settling dust, something moved.
Riri pushed herself upright, one hand pressed against the crater's edge for support. Her HP bar showed 1. Not zero. One.
System #2's interface pulsed weakly.
[Emergency HP stabilization active]
[You cannot heal above 1 HP for the next 60 seconds]
[But you're not dead yet, Host!]
She could barely stand. Every movement felt like tearing through wet paper. But she was conscious. Functional.
And she still had one ability that didn't require HP to activate.
"Loki," she whispered. "Alpha's Command. Give Samael your Constitution."
The shadow-wolf materialized beside her, Alpha's Aegis gleaming despite the destruction. The massive wolf turned its glowing eyes to Samael, then howled.
[Alpha's Command - Activated]
[Transferring Constitution: Loki → Samael Santoro]
[+340 Constitution for 30 seconds]
Samael's HP stopped draining. The Berserk state didn't end but the Constitution boost gave him enough resistance to offset the cost temporarily.
His gaze found Riri across the crater. Their eyes met.
She nodded once.
Finish it.
Samael turned back to the Void Cardinal. The creature was still frozen by Vermillion's drain, HP dropping past fifteen thousand. Almost dead. But not quite.
One more compression. Smaller than the previous two. Precise rather than explosive. Focused entirely on the Void Cardinal's core.
The kinetic force crushed inward. The Void Cardinal's skeletal form collapsed, bones grinding to powder, dark energy dissipating.
[VOID CARDINAL - ELIMINATED]
[MISSION COMPLETE]
[SHATTERED CATHEDRAL - RANK A - CLEARED]
[Calculating rewards...]
The notification appeared across both their visions simultaneously.
Then Samael's Berserk state ended and he collapsed.
Riri tried to move toward him but her legs gave out. She fell hard, HP still locked at 1, body barely functional.
Through the Bond, she felt his consciousness flickering. Still alive. Barely.
The extraction portal materialized at the crater's edge, gold light gentle against the devastation.
Loki limped toward Samael, grabbed him by the tactical vest, and began dragging him toward the portal. Kirin landed beside Riri, lowered his body, and waited for her to crawl onto his back.
She didn't have strength left to climb. Vesper and Vermillion worked together, shadow lifting her while butterflies supported her weight, getting her onto Kirin's back through combined effort.
All four companions moved toward the extraction portal, carrying their half-dead hosts.
The portal's light swallowed them.
Riri woke in the Sanctuary's medical bay, which she didn't remember owning.
The room was small, clinical, with white walls and soft lighting. Medical equipment lined one wall, all displaying readings she couldn't process through the fog in her head.
Samael lay in the bed beside hers, unconscious but breathing steadily. His HP bar showed 892/3,047. Still recovering but stable.
Her own HP: 1,523/3,047.
Wait. Her maximum HP was back to normal. The Bond Resurrection penalty had worn off.
[24 hours have elapsed since Bond Resurrection triggered]
[HP penalty removed]
[Ability recharged - 1/1 use available]
System #2's interface appeared, honey-gold but subdued.
[Welcome back, Host]
[You've been unconscious for 26 hours]
[Your companions are all recovered and in rest mode]
[Samael Santoro regained consciousness 4 hours ago, was informed you were stable, and immediately passed out again from exhaustion]
[Mission rewards have been distributed]
[Would you like to review?]
Riri stared at the ceiling, processing. Twenty-six hours. They'd both been unconscious for over a day. The mission had nearly killed them both. Had killed them both, technically.
She'd died. Actually died. HP reached zero. And Samael had died seconds later.
The Bond Resurrection had saved him. But it had left her at 1 HP, barely functional, able to do nothing but give one final command before collapsing.
They'd won. Somehow. Through coordination, desperation, and abilities they'd unlocked mid-combat.
But the cost had been everything they had.
"System," she whispered. "Show me the rewards."
[SHATTERED CATHEDRAL - RANK A - CLEARED]
[Base Rewards: 250,000 Experience, 150,000 Credits]
[×3 Multiplier Applied: 750,000 Experience, 450,000 Credits]
[Bonus: First Clear - A-Rank Cathedral]
[Bonus: World Boss Elimination - Archbishop Morvain]
[Bonus: Special Boss Elimination - Void Cardinal (S-Rank Threat)]
[Total Experience Gained: 2,340,000]
[Total Credits Gained: 875,000]
[Additional Reward: SSS-Rank Lottery Ticket ×2]
[Additional Reward: Skill Upgrade Token ×3]
[Additional Reward: Legendary Equipment Cache]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Current Level: 26 → 30]
[Stat Points Available: 60 (15 per level ×4)]
Four levels. In one mission.
And Samael would have received similar gains. Maybe even more if he'd gotten MVP credit for the damage output.
The mission had nearly killed them. But the rewards were absurd.
Riri's hand moved to her chest, feeling the faint pulse of the Bond beneath her sternum. Through it, she felt Samael's presence. Exhausted but stable. His consciousness was still submerged in recovery sleep but the connection itself thrummed with something new.
Stronger. Deeper. Like the shared near-death experience had reinforced it.
She closed her eyes and let herself sink back into rest. The rewards could wait. Stat distribution could wait. Everything could wait until they were both functional.
They'd survived A-Rank. Barely.
But they'd survived together.
And that was enough.